Proverbs
Proverbs is a page for proverbs and other sayings - listed alphabetically - which can be found in the 'Malazan' books of Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont. One brief definition of proverb is — "A short, often traditional, saying that expresses some obvious truth or familiar experience".Adapted from Webster's New World Dictionary (5th edition) Some common synonyms of proverb are — Adage; catchphrase; epigram/epigraph; maxim; motto; precept; saw; or saying. Sayings can be: common; oracular; pithy; and/or wise in nature.Selected from Roget's International Thesaurus (7th edition) For those interested, an in-depth discussion of proverb can be found in the Wikipedia article at: Proverb A *Abject misery lies not in what the blanket reveals, but in what it hides.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 1, US HC p.39 *A Book of Prophecy opens the door. You need a second book to close it.The Bonehunters, Chapter 21, US HC p.647 *A god walking mortal earth trails blood.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.389 *A half-blood walked the gutter between two worlds, despised by both.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US HC p.288 *All that breaks must be discarded even as the thunder of faith returns ever fading echoes.House of Chains, Chapter 10, US TPB p.300 *Always an even trade.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 2, US TPB p.63-64/69 *An army that waits is soon at war with itself.House of Chains, Chapter 7, US TPB p.221 *An old sword, pitted and blunt and nicked, that cuts clean to the heart.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.311 *Anticipation is the sweetest nectar...The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 10 *As vows are sworn, so are they reaped.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 1, US TPB p.7 *At night ghosts come In rivers of grief, To claw away the sand Beneath a man's feetHouse of Chains, Chapter 9, US TPB p.270 B *Battle is for an army to win or lose; war is for civilization to win of lose.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 4, US TPB p.364 *Be careful who you invite into your camp.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6, US HC p.196 *Be not too rigid For you will shatter; Be not too yielding, For you will be bowed.Stonewielder, Chapter 7, US TPB p.346 *Better to walk into a trap you can see than one you can't.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.395 *Beware the leader who has nothing to lose.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 4, US HC p.131 *Blood and tribe first. All others are enemy.Deadhouse Landing, Chapter 3, US TPB p.47 C *Children are dying!Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.311 *Children from a dark house choose shadowed paths.House of Chains, Chapter 1, US TPB p.27 *Competence was no gift when it arrived too late.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 14, US TPB p.465 D Death shall be my bridge.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 7, US TPB p.173 E *East to the sun's rise North to winter's face South to where stars are born West to the road of death.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 12, US TPB p.376 *Even a man who has lived a life of sorrows will ask for one more day.The Crippled God, Chapter 22, US HC p.646 *Even the best laid plans.Deadhouse Landing, Prologue, US TPB p.1 *Everyone has a price.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 8, US TPB p.132 *Every throne is an arrow-butt.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 21, US TPB p.541 F *Fame is fleeting...The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 14 *...familiarity was the seed of contempt...The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 7 *Fear is fear. It has no logic.Deadhouse Landing, Chapter 15, US TPB p.284 *Fear is a potent weapon...but fear can fuel hate...which is far stronger.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 7, US TPB p.120 *First in, last out.Memories of Ice, Book 4 Epigraph, US TPB p.576Reaper's Gale, Chapter 24, US TPB p.756 *Five wings will buy you a grovel...Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US TPB p.293Midnight Tides, Chapter 24, US TPB p.550 *For all the rivers this world over do flow in but one Direction.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 7, US TPB p.194 *For there to rich, there must be poor, and more of the latter than the former.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 2, US TPB p.61 G *Generally speaking, people useless at everything else become academics.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 1, US HC p.47 *Give an imbecile a torch and you will get a fire.Dancer's Lament, Chapter 16, US HC p.295 *...gods fear mortals more than they do each other.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.330 H *HAIL THE MARINES!Dust of Dreams, Chapter 23, US HC p.779 *History comforts the dull-witted.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 3, US TPB p.82 *History consists of nothing more than the lies we tell ourselves to justify the present.Stonewielder, Chapter 6, US TPB p.273 *How many times...will you walk the same path?House of Chains, Chapter 15, US TPB p.411 I *I am not yet done.Memories of Ice, Chapter 16, US TPB p.428 *If righteousness was easy...it would not shine like gold.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6, US HC p.161 *"I have had...enough...of...your...justice!"The Crippled God, Chapter 23, US HC p.779 *In a land where Seven cities rose in gold, Even the dust has eyes.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 4, US TPB p.102 *I ride the Whirlwind!Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 9, US TPB p.228 *Is it not so that better...ancients had been men and women of worth than to possess things of worth?Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 9, US TPB p.265 *It is the horror of war that, with each newly arrived generation, the nightmare is reprised by innocents.House of Chains, Chapter 8, US TPB p.245 *It is the wise wolf that follows every spoor, no matter how slight.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 6, UK MMPB p.202 K *Know your enemy better than they know themselves.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 18, US TPB p.478 L *Last in, looking around...Reaper's Gale, Chapter 24, US TPB p.756 *Lead us, Warleader.House of Chains, Chapter 2, US TPB p.63 *Leave murder to those whose souls are already stained.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US TPB p.462 *Let sleeping dogs lie.The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 8 *Light strikes Dark smothers Shadow goes round.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 3 Epigraph, US TPB p.539 *Like attracts like.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US TPB p.460 *Looking back is a flame in the eyes. Best not to linger like flies in the refuse we have made.Stonewielder, Chapter 9, US TPB p.449 M *Madness is simply a state of mind.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 14, US TPB p.384 *Memories are woven tapestries hiding hard walls.Memories of Ice, Chapter 1, US TPB p.33 *Mockery is just hate's patina, and every laugh is vicious.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 7, US TPB p.200 N *Never bargain with a man who has nothing to lose.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US HC p.221 *Not even the dead know the end to war.The Crippled God, Chapter 19, US HC p.541 *"...not yet done..."Memories of Ice, Chapter 16, US TPB p.428 O *Only the dead should be certain of anything.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 5, US TPB p.420 *Open to them your hand to the shore, watch them walk into the sea.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 20, US TPB p.627Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US TPB p.628 *Out of death comes life.Deadhouse Landing, Chapter 2, US TPB p.30 P *Paranoia's the assassin's bedmate.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 17, US TPB p.454 *Poetry and sorcery were the twin edges to the knife in every man's heart.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 11, US TPB p.280 *Prod and pull.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 1, US TPB p.32Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 18, US TPB p.183 Q *Quon pays so that Tali can fight.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 8, US TPB p.129 R *Revelry is a flight, a frenzied fleeing from the misery of daily existence.The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 5 S *Sail today to fight tomorrow.Deadhouse Landing, Prologue, US TPB p.3 *Salt of the earth.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 3, US TPB p.43 *Shadow is ever besieged...whilst darkness devours and light steals.House of Chains, Chapter 20, US TPB p.504 *Sha'ik Reborn!Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 18, US TPB p.478 *...shaved knuckle in the hole.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 11, US TPB p.301Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 23, US TPB p.579 *Some things never do change.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 1 Chapter 5, US TPB p.196 *Speak truth, grow still, until the water is clear between us.Toll the Hounds, Prologue, US TPB p.17 *Strong as the walls of Heng.Dancer's Lament, Chapter 1, US HC p.15 T *That is one curse we all share - the will to live.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.401 *The beetle that walks slowly has nothing to fear.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 6, US HC p.185 *The dead never interrupt, they but arrive.Gardens of the Moon, Chapter 11, US TPB p.251 *The end of the world is announced with a kind word.Midnight Tides, Chapter 6, US SFBC p.218 *The frog atop the stack of coins dare not jump.Midnight Tides, Chapter 12, US TPB p.293 *The harder the world, the fiercer the honour.Memories of Ice, Chapter 8, US TPB p.228 *The miracle of hindsight is how it transforms great military geniuses of the past into incompetent idiots, and incompetent idiots of the present into great military geniuses.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 6, US TPB p.161 *The more laws a land has, the more corrupt it is.Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 17, US TPB p.468 *The only real curse is when you find yourself the last of your kind.Dust of Dreams, Prologue, US HC p.29 *The problem with paths is that once you have chosen one, You cannot choose the others.Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 1, US TPB p.33 *The purest book is the one never opened.The Crippled God, Book 1 Epigraph, US HC p.2 *There are folds in this shadow...hiding entire worlds.House of Chains, Chapter 5, US TPB p.176 *There are tides beneath every tide And the surface of water Holds no weight.Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US TPB p.99 *There is no death in light.House of Chains, Chapter 21, US TPB p.526 *There is no struggle too vast, no odds too overwhelming, for even should we fail — should we fall — we will know that we have lived.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 24, US TPB p.781 *There will always be innocent victims in the pursuit of evil.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 1, US HC p.7 *...the sea...does not dream of you.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 21, US TPB p.628 *The shore is blind to the sea.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US TPB p.324/337/339 *The slower the river, the redder it runs.House of Chains, Chapter 1, US TPB p.26 *The stars wheel. Let us ride. Lead us, Warleader. The stars wheel. Lead us Warleader, into glory.House of Chains, Chapter 1, US TPB p.35 *The wise learn more from their enemies than fools learn from their friends.Return of the Crimson Guard, Book 2 Chapter 2, US TPB p.283 *Time makes of us believers. Timelessness makes of us unbelievers.Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 12, US TPB p.332 *To be Shake was to know grief.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US TPB p.324 *Truth hides in colourless clothes. *Twice as far as you think Half the distance you fearReaper's Gale, Chapter 7, US TPB p.159 *Tyranny remains because the weak and fearful seek it.Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 15, US TPB p.421 U *Unwitnessed : (we shall be our own witness).Reaper's Gale, Chapter 13, US TPB p.357-358 W *War forged bonds closer knit than those of bloodkin.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.549 *War with Nom Purge is just the Talians keeping in practice.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 1, US TPB p.9 *Wealth yields little succour when the soul spends too freely...Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 2, US HC p.11 *We cannot learn without pain.Stonewielder, Chapter 12, US TPB p.575 *We lie about our past to make peace with the present.Dust of Dreams, Chapter 17, US HC p.535 *We walk the same path, some farther along, some further back, but still and for ever more the same path.Toll the Hounds, Chapter 11, US TPB p.375 *We were never what people could be. We were only what we were.The Crippled God, Epilogue Two, US HC p.909 *What is an old man but a pile of fading leaves?Stonewielder, Chapter 1, US TPB p.43 *What is the Deck of Dragons But where one bends to look For reflections Of all things unseen?Orb Sceptre Throne, Chapter 5, US TPB p.136 *What the soul can house, flesh cannot fathom.Memories of Ice, Chapter 17, US TPB p.429 *When the gods of dust were young They swam in blood.Midnight Tides, Chapter 25, US TPB p.570 *When you do not recognize the wrongs of the past, the future takes its revenge.Stonewielder, Chapter 11, US TPB p.533 *Where hides the gravest threat? Why, the one you invite into your camp.Crack'd Pot Trail, Chapter 6, US HC p.191 *Where pleasure is not possible...neither is pain.The Fiends of Nightmaria, Section 10 *Who needs swords when we have our tongues?Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.410 *Wisdom comes from the country from a rural area.Kellanved's Reach, Chapter 3, US TPB p.44 *Wisdom unfurls like a flower in a pile of dung.Midnight Tides, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.227 *Witness!Reaper's Gale, Chapter 1Toll the Hounds, Epilogue, US TPB p.829 Y *You can heal wounds of the flesh well enough, but it's the other ones that can bleed out a soul.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 13, US TPB p.355 *You cannot be remade unless you are first broken...Deadhouse Gates, Chapter 15, US TPB p.408 Notes and references Category:Culture Category:Miscellany